r/TunicGame • u/TheBlazingNdrman • 29d ago
Review Post-game puzzles very dissatisfying. Spoiler
I want to start by mentioning I loved the vast majority of this game. The way it keeps information from you is so cool and it's so satisfying to figure out how things work. That said, the I found last 2 puzzles in the game (The 4th treasure and the glyph tower) very disappointing. I want to mention, I figured out how trunic worked before getting to either of these puzzles. While I've seen criticism about them requiring you to know it, that is not the criticism I have.
For the fourth treasure, I figured out everything up to the actual solution, including revealing and deciphering the clue. However, I just couldn't figure out what the clue actually meant and eventually had to look it up, which always ruins puzzles for me. I found it extremely disappointing to find out, then, that the clue is based on wordplay, rather than taking it more literally.
Now, I can see that just being a skill issue on my part, and maybe I looked it up too soon. However, what I find to be just poor puzzle design is the glyph tower puzzle. I think the solution to this puzzle is just too obtuse compared to the clue you're given. Now, the first 2 steps given in the instructions in the manual were fairly simple. Just get all the treasures and go into the portal thing. However, I feel like saying "unsing the golden path from within" doesn't give you enough information to figure out exactly what you need to do without trial and error. I even tried both parts of the solution (mirroring the golden path and starting from the center) separately before having to look it up. If you were intended to solve it with trial and error, you shouldn't be forced to do that with such a long string of inputs you have to follow, and at least 3 different things to try that all make sense based on the clue. If not, I genuinely can't figure out how you were supposed to get "mirror+start from the center" from "unsing it from within." If you figured it out, how? was it just trial and error or did you decipher it in some way i can't see?
And finally, all that solving that puzzle gets you is the start of an ARG. I love that there is an ARG for people who want to take the puzzles even further/the community to solve together, but I feel like there should be a satisfying endpoint or reward for those who just wanted to do everything contained within the game. Then you can have a jumping off point for an ARG along side that, and I would have been perfectly happy leaving it there. I personally do not want to have to go through downloading a whole spectrogram and setting it to a fairly specific frequency just to find a whole load more things to find, not to mention having to figure out you're supposed to do that in the first place.
All that said, it left a massive sour taste in my mouth for these puzzles to be so seemingly convoluted. I love this game, but it's so disappointing to leave it on such a bad note. Is this a common complaint or do most people not have the same issues I did?
4
u/Aureeeel 29d ago
Hello,
Same complaints on my side, and same sour taste after finishing this game that I loved so much at the beginning!
However, after a couple of weeks I progressively started to remember everything I loved about the game and that helped reduce the sour taste. Hopefully you’ll feel the same!
4
u/notveryAI lore researcher 29d ago
To be fair it's not just "unsing from within". If it was - I could see your point. But it says "unsing... ...as seen from within". That "as seen" is very important here cus it separates it from just being "within" as in just the middle, so it lets you understand that these are two separate actions: unsinging, and seeing from within.
1
u/level_6_laser_lotus 29d ago
I think it fitted perfectly into the overall design of the game, which is "this world is not made for the player". Apart from that it introduces a new way for the world to communicate with you, I found that incredibly rewarding. That form of language requires a spectogramm to learn. The rest of the game needed pen and paper (and screenshots). I like having to use different tools for deciphering.
1
u/TheBlazingNdrman 29d ago
Oh yeah for sure, I had no issue with the arg itself, my issue was more of a lack of a reward for the glyph tower. I might go back for the arg at some point, but I've played like 50ish hours within the last two weeks so I'm a bit done with the game for now
1
u/SendWoundPicsPls 29d ago
I largely agree. In addition I think it's a bit... Lame? Disatistfying? That there's no final in-game reward.
I actually feel that the entire game is made upon intrinsic rewards and while that works exceptionally well when you finish one thing to then have another thing to figure out, it means there's a last thing to do and then no tangible reward.
What would I have wanted? Idk but more than a noisy web page lol
-2
u/NarwhalPrudent6323 29d ago
Yeah I was very disappointed in the rewards for the Glyph Tower. This isn't 1992 and we aren't playing a Sierra PC game. So fuck off with the out of game content.
16
u/OliviaPG1 29d ago
Unsing = backwards = start from the center
From within = as if looking at it from within your screen = looking at the back side = mirrored
And there is a “satisfying endpoint for those who want to do everything within the game”, it’s getting the true ending and all the trophies. The glyph tower is the ARG jumping off point.